Just an Overlord
|name=Just an Overlord |image=JustAnOverlord Cover1.jpg |imgsize=200px |author=Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie |editor= |artist= |intartist= |series= |parent= |pages=10 |publisher=Blizzard Entertainment |published=March 21, 2013 |binding= |isbn10= |isbn13= |isbn10e= |isbn13e= |inseries1= |inseries2= |inseries3= |inseries4= |inseries5= |inseries6= |inseries7= |inseries8= |inseries9= |inseries10= }} Just an Overlord is a StarCraft II short story written by Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie, designed to tie-in with Heart of the Swarm. It focuses on the overlord. The story was later collected in StarCraft II: War Stories, and relates to the narrative of Project Blackstone. Description A lone marine squadron tragically underestimates the vicious cunning of a feral overlord. ---- It was supposed to be an easy assignment: take a squad of recruits out to the ruins of Tarsonis, make camp at the abandoned Ghost Academy, and play war games for a few weeks to prep the recruits for combat. With Kerrigan out of the picture, the zerg are just mindless animals, hardly a threat to Dominion marines... right? As Meatbag Squadron is about to find out, even the supposedly most harmless zerg can be a terrifying enemy. Synopsis In the skies about Tarsonis, two feral overlords, Purple Eyes and Green Eyes, regained their sentience from their time as Gargantis proximae, and remembered that they were both the last of their original species and mates of one another. Meanwhile, In the ruined Tarsonis Ghost Academy, the Scantid Pirates set up base and attempted to loot the facility. However, their leader Razek spotted a medivac dropship of the Dominion Marine Corps. A training group known as Meatbag Squadron poured out and secured the facility, slaughtering the pirates within. Their leader, Sergeant Bayton, lectured them on how sloppy of a job they had done, and ordered them to clean up the blood. The group began to set up for war games in the facility, and met in the mess hall they had established. Private Caston Gage met with Private Marc Drumar, who said he was not ready for the killing, and that maybe they should just try to talk to their enemies. Gage laughed at the notion, and spotted the two overlords on the horizon. He shot Purple Eyes, killing it outright. Drumar was disgusted, as the zerg were feral and harmless, and left. Gage attempted to kill Green Eyes, but it ducked behind buildings for cover. Green Eyes had spotted what had killed its mate, and swore that it would destroy it to avenge the "we" that had not become "I." The next day Meatbag Squadron began war games, using paintballs to simulate a Dominion vs rebel urban battle. When asked why they didn't hunt the zerg in the area, Sergeant Bayton said they were feral and would present no challenge. The exercise was delayed as they reported zerg biosigns incoming, but the alert was called down when it was revealed that it was just an overlord. Meanwhile, Green Eyes took control of a drone, and began constructing a rudimentary hive cluster. Meanwhile, Meatbag Squadron discussed the overlord they saw, with Caston worried that it somehow remembered that he had tried to kill it. Gage suggested that it would be best if they hunted it down and tried to kill it, in spite of it being dark out. When Gage presented this idea to the squad, he was mocked, as overlords were harmless, and even in their pre-infestation form they were only semi-intelligent herbivores. Private Berry brought up that they even mourned, turning sky blue when one of their mates died. The squad began target practice, with Gage still paranoid about Green Eyes. Just then, a flock of mutalisks attacked Meatbag Squadron. Green Eyes released control of the mutalisks, letting them go rampant on the marines, and reflecting that it must cause the anger and pain to the one that killed Purple Eyes. After the mutalisks passed, Privates Berry and Marc Drumar were dead. Bayton demanded that the return to the dropship and escape the planet, but his men objected. Bayton stated it was an order, when Green Eyes dropped a baneling on the squad's dropship and the pirate's ship, destroying both. The squad moved to the lower levels of the base, when Green Eyes dropped another baneling on the Academy structure. The squad moved to the lower levels, with Private Dax Damen revealing he never was neutrally resocialized like all of his colleagues thought. Then zerglings poured in, as Dax attempted to override the heavily encrypted Ghost Academy elevator. At the end of the encounter, only Gage and Private Hanna Saul were left. They descended the elevator to floor Z, and as they entered they were ambushed by a roach. It killed Saul, but Gage managed shoot it before it could get to him. Gage climbed back to the surface, encountering no more zerg, then reaching Green Eyes, who stared at him with deep red eyes. Green Eyes then turned and floated away. Gage then realized the overlord had kept him alive for a reason; it wanted to die and wanted Gage to kill it, after it had killed Purple Eyes. He realized that Purple Eyes was the one thing that it knew after it had regained sentience. Disgusted, he threw his rifle down. Green Eyes reflected that it wanted to return to the will of the Kerrigan, to forget the pain. Gage dug eight graves for his comrades. He knew a rescue team would come, but he wanted to avoid it, as rescue would mean resocialization and resocialization would mean forgetting, and he did not want to forget. He looked up, and saw Green Eyes on the horizon turn sky blue, the color of mourning.Jurgens-Fyhrie, Gavin. "Just an Overlord." (March 21, 2013). Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft Lore: Just an Overlord Accessed 2013-03-25. Characters Meatbag Squadron *Sergeant Bayton *Corporal Sawn *Private Berry *Private Kell Daws *Private Caston Gage *Private Dax Damen *Private Marc Drumar *Private Hanna Saul *Private Vallen Wolfe Pirates *Bourmus *Lom *Miles *Razek *Sera Zerg *"Green Eyes" *"Purple Eyes" Mentioned Characters *Arcturus Mengsk *Sarah Kerrigan References Category:Short stories